


Dust, Sweat, Stars

by sv_you_know_who_I_am



Series: A Court of War and Starlight One-Shots [5]
Category: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: F/M, NSFW, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-09
Updated: 2016-06-09
Packaged: 2018-07-13 23:14:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7142165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sv_you_know_who_I_am/pseuds/sv_you_know_who_I_am
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Feyre and Rhys have some catching up to do after injuries have kept them from their favorite activity. Alone in the stacks of a Day Court library they get . . . a little carried away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dust, Sweat, Stars

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: So this smut wound up being so long and steamy that I didn’t feel right putting it as a whole chapter in ACOWAS, so I made it a one-shot instead. It technically occurs during Chapter 40. You don’t have to read all of ACOWAS to understand this fic, though. It takes place in the libraries of the Day Court.

 

It was hot.

Most of the library was filled with cooling magic not very different from what Rhys used to keep his mountain homes warm, but here, deep in the archives . . . the enchantments must have been broken when they were ransacked. Or they were just too infrequently visited to bother making them a reasonable temperature.

As Rhys and I picked our way over fallen shelves, the sweltering temperature and the dust combined into an atmosphere that was nearly unbearable. I had already abandoned one layer of the dress that I wore, hoping that it would help alleviate the heat, but it didn’t. Rhys smirked as he watched me toss it aside, and I was not ignorant of the way his eyes traveled up my body and over my shoulder, fixing on my throat.

Sweat sheened on his own brow, but he did not complain, though I had taken to muttering under my breath every time I wiped away a fresh layer from the back of my neck. This section of the archive was now entirely abandoned, and much of the rest of the library, too--in the course of our searching, we had learned that most Day Court scholars took a reprieve in the middle of the day to rest or eat, otherwise avoiding the heat of the sun. Down here, it was just us, and I wished that we could leave to go find some coolness ourselves. But there was too much work to do. The clock was ticking, and I couldn’t help but feel like we were right on top of discovering something.

We moved from aisle to aisle, my finger making lines in the thick dust on the spines of books and the edges of shelves. I continued muttering under my breath and I heard Rhys chuckle, but I ignored him. “Are you going to bother helping?” I snipped, very aware of how uninterested he seemed in the stacks of books all around us. In fact, his eyes were practically singeing the back of my neck as he fixed his intense gaze on me. He only chuckled again and I prowled on.

The silence was almost as oppressive as the heat. When I reached the end of the row, I huffed in frustration and laid my forehead on the nearest shelf. Dust flew up my nose and I sneezed.

The sound was followed by my mate behind me. “Feyre,” he purred, dragging out the syllables with a roll of his tongue. _Fayyy-rrruh_. I rolled my eyes without lifting my head. I was not in the mood. “Feyre, darling,” he said again, the same mischief in every sound. _Fayy-rruh darrrling_.

“What?” I grunted.

“The entire library is empty.”

Heat flushed my cheeks though I maintained my frown. “And your point is?”

Rhys stroked the bond between us and I held back a pleased shudder. I was aware of his body moving closer to mine. He leaned over me to murmur into my ear, “Do you know how absolutely _delicious_ you look right now?”

I snorted. “I’m covered in sweat,” I protested, though my mouth twisted up. Cauldron damn him, he knew how to play me.

I yelped as he suddenly lunged forward and dragged his tongue up the side of my neck from my shoulder to my ear. “Exactly,” he whispered in my ear. “ _Delicious_.” His hand slipped between my body and the bookshelf to press his palm against my stomach, fingers splayed.

A tremor ran through my body and I lifted my head to face him, only to feel my knees go slightly weak at the intensity of his bedroom eyes. I turned around to press my back to the shelves and he moved in front of me, so close that I had to look up to meet his gaze. Those hooded violet eyes dragged down my body and back up again, taking in every dust-covered detail. My heart was already thudding, my mouth already turning dry--and not because of the dust.

“Do you know what I’ve been thinking about all day?” he asked, fixing his eyes on mine at last. I knew from the erotic timbre in his voice that he was completely determined to seduce me, right here and right now. Maybe I would let him--but I would have some fun of my own first.

I held his stare. “I could hazard a guess.”

Like a prick, he kept his eyes fixed on mine as he ran his tongue over his lips. His voice then filled my mind through the crack in my shield. _I’ve been thinking_ , he said, raising one eyebrow and parting his lips slightly, _about how badly I want to fuck you against this bookcase._

The breath whooshed out of me as my body reacted to those words, his voice. I pressed myself against the bookshelf as my spine went taut. _Yes_ , my body cried out. _Take me now_.

But where would be the fun in that? 

Though I hadn’t let him hear those words, he could smell the effect he had on me, and the look on his face was absolutely wicked. He grinned and prowled toward me, and I did not move as he pressed his whole body up against mine, pinning me to the bookcase. He gave one roll of his hips so that I could feel how hard he already was. His hands didn’t touch me, only rested on the shelf on other side of my body, while he murmured in my ear, “I’ve put a lot of thought into how I want this to go.” Another roll of his hips. I swallowed a groan as fire filled my blood. _Focus_ , I warned myself. “I have a lot of time to make up for.”

“Only nine days,” I gasped. I had been counting, of course.

“That’s hours, and hours, and _hours_ of making love to you, darling,” he growled, grinding his hips into me with every repeated word. Cauldron boil me, this was not going to be easy.

I tipped my head back so that my lips hovered near his. “Then show me what you’ve planned,” I whispered.

He snarled in approval and his hand lunged to grab between my legs, to feel the wetness that was already there, but before he could touch me--

\--I winnowed.

Not far. Only to the end of the aisle. And my body screamed at the loss of contact with him, but the look on his face--the shock followed by a flash of anger and then delight--was worth it. I slouched on one shoulder against the end of the bookcase, one hip thrust out and my arms crossed over my chest. Beckoning him. “You think I don’t have plans of my own?” I called.

He curled his lips back from his teeth and gave a feral grin. “Is that how you want to play?” he asked, crouching his body just slightly as though he were preparing to charge at me.

But I knew this technique. I’d seen it in our training sessions for months now. So when he lurched forward, only to feint and winnow, I was already gone, and he was left releasing a long string of curses when he reached my vacated spot at the end of the aisle.

I had reached the main corridor and had reappeared a few aisles down. “You think you’re so clever, High Lord?” I called, a teasing smile on my face.

Rhys was almost panting with desire now, and a thrill shot through my blood. Once more--I could do this once more before he would catch on and I would certainly lose. I stood near a center foyer, long abandoned with overturned tables and a stone vault in the center that Aracely had said no one knew how to open--she had doubted there was anything inside it at all. The ceiling was a high dome above us, and the sun streamed through glass windows far above, causing the dust to swirl like glitter in the air.

I was so busy planning my next move that I almost missed Rhys’s disappearing. Still, I had a half-second advantage on him, which was all I needed. I winnowed to the top of a tall bookshelf at the outer ring of the foyer and looked down on him as he swore again. “ _Feyre_ ,” he growled, getting frustrated but still ravenous. I waited as he prowled toward the center of the foyer until he caught my scent and looked up to spot me. I winnowed a final time--and landed on his back, wrapping my arms around his chest and biting his neck.

He hissed in surprise and delight, but his next move was too fast for me to predict. He seized my arm and flipped me over his shoulder until I landed on my feet before him. Then he winnowed both of us--and pinned me against the stone wall of the vault in the center of the foyer. Determined to keep me from getting away again, he gathered both of my wrists in one hand and held them over my head, while the other hand grabbed my face, as though I were something he’d been craving for far too long. The palm of his heel rested just beneath my chin, while his fingers splayed over my mouth and jaw, holding me there.

We locked eyes and his fingers started to trace the outline of my mouth, the tip of his middle finger tracing the bow of my upper lips. We both gasped for breath, panting with need for each other . . . but we were both enjoying the game.

I stared into his star-flecked eyes as I nipped at his middle finger, drawing it into my mouth. And sucked. His eyes went wild and his body still and taut as I swirled my tongue over his finger and sucked again, slowly dragging my teeth along his skin. His fingers tightened on my jaw just slightly, nail dragging at the skin just below my jaw--a subconscious reaction to my treatment.

A muscle feathered in Rhys’s neck as he looked over my head and guided my hands to hold a solid gold ornamental ring that hung there. My hands gripped it as I continued to lick his finger, but soon, he pulled away and stepped back. I made to let go of the ring I held and follow him, but he held up a finger on his other hand. “Now, now, Feyre. My turn,” he purred.

I groaned and writhed my hips to try and alleviate the ache that was building between my legs. He was teasing _me_ now. He surveyed me once, eyes glinted with mischief and desire, and then lunged, his left hand becoming talons as he slashed at the side of my dress--perfectly and efficiently undoing the knot that held it all together. I arched off of the pillar and allowed it to fall down around my ankles so that I was completely bare.

The bastard. He’d been staring at me all day just to figure out this exact procedure--how to remove my clothes as quickly as possible.

He smirked as his hands then went to his own tunic and began unbuckling the straps that held the loose fabric around his body.

I whimpered petulantly. “I want to,” I whined, removing one hand from the ring to reach for him. He fixed me with a stare, though, and I sighed, willingly placing my hand back where it had been.

He gave a sensuous smile and then his lips parted. Rich words, both purrs and growls I did not recognize began streaming from his mouth. After a few words, I recognized what it was. Illyrian. He provided a translation for me in my mind, even as his murmuring echoed through the foyer.

 _I want to watch you, Feyre_ , he purred in my mind as the first layer dropped off, revealing one muscled, tattooed shoulder. I _want to see you turn red at the sight of me, want to see you swell_. The next layer, and his sweat-slicked chest was revealed to me, swirls of ink matching the swirls on my own arm. I could see his chest rising and failing, though I could hear his heart racing even from here. I let out a lustful groan and he grinned. _I want_ , he said, continuing in Illyrian as he unbuckled his loose trousers, holding them as he locked eyes with me, _to see you wet, Feyre. To see it shining against your thighs._

I whimpered and my hands gripped the gold ring tighter as he finally bore himself to me, that beautiful length hard and swollen and ready for me. My pulse throbbed between my legs and my lips writhed again. _Please_ , I begged him in my thoughts.

This was normally when he would dive for me and pleasure me with his tremendously dexterous tongue. I could remember Calanmai, remember the mountain, and I longed for the feel of him--any part of him--inside me.

But he broke the pattern. He stalked toward me, his scent made richer by the addition of his sweat, and stood before me, his length between us. He allowed its tip to just brush against the skin of my stomach. “ _Rhysand_ ,” I ground out, trying to work my hips up to meet him.

He made a small indignant sound. “Rhysand?” he breathed. “Oh, Feyre. You know that’s not what I like to hear. Now you’ll just have to wait even longer.”

I grit my teeth together. “Bastard,” I spat.

He laughed, low and sensuous, before his Illyrian murmuring resumed, the translation accompanying it in my mind. _You’re mine_ , he purred. T _hese--these breasts are mine_. He cupped one in each hand, massaging them in slow, deep circles until my nipples were swollen and he swirled his tongue around each one--slowly. _This neck_ , he hissed, _is mine_. He scraped his teeth over the pounding artery in my throat before kissing it languidly.

His right hand released my breast. _And this_ \--it slid down my abdomen, over my pelvis bone-- _all of this is mine, too._

And he finally slipped a finger--the same finger I had taken in my mouth earlier, I realized--deep into my folds.

The satisfaction was so sweet that I let out a long, loud groan. He pulled out slightly. “Feyre!” Rhys gasped, sounding scandalized. “We are in a _library_. We need to be quiet.”

“No one--” I rasped, but when he drew his finger out further I clamped my mouth shut and nodded. He slid his finger back deep inside me and I bit back the groan I wanted to release, settling instead for throwing my head back and exhaling long and hard through my nose.

“That’s my queen,” he murmured, and he stuck another finger inside me.

This time the groan was harder to hold in. Still holding the ring--and too busy to notice that my arms were starting to go vaguely numb--I began to move against his fingers, rolling my hips and biting my lips to hold in the moans.

I did find a loophole, though--being among the Fae had taught me a thing or two. So, through the sliver in our mental shields, I sent him a long, sensuous groan over our connection. Silent--but effective.

Rhys went ramrod straight, and the sweat on his brow was no longer simply from the heat. He had been holding out a long time, too, and he was fighting his own impatience. He plunged in harder and deeper and I sent another groan down the bond, only gasping out loud. His free hand, which had been guiding my hips, shot up to coax my hands down, and they fell limply over his shoulders, where my fingers grappled against the strong muscles. I leaned away from the pillar to press myself to him, but before I could do much he switched out his fingers for his cock, and I was pinned once more to the vault, this time filled entirely.

I could not hold back the cry of exhilaration and pleasure, and he did not hold back his own growl of satisfaction. After pausing a moment for me to get comfortable in our position, he began to rock against me--as he had earlier when we’d both still been clothed. It wasn’t a bookcase, but . . . as long as he was fucking me against something, he seemed happy.

And so was I.

Our mutual groaning made a sensual harmony that floated up into the domed ceiling. He thrust into me, hard, and I moved with him, gasping at the intensity of it.

But oh, we were not done. As he moved, faster and harder, and I rocked with him, hardly thinking of anything besides the feeling of him inside me, pounding me, dust from the cracks of the decrepit vault showered down over us, sticking to our sweaty skin. “Rhys,” I barked, clawing at his back. “Rhys, _more_.”

I began to wonder a moment later if I had been unwise, because Rhys became a storm around and within me, so overpowered by us that he abandoned his glamour entirely. The dust, the sun, the library--it all disappeared until it was just us in an endless sea of star-speckled night. The tips of his talons pricked the skin of my thighs where he held them up, and his eyes glowed with starlight so pure I couldn’t see the violets anymore. Sharp fangs were bared and then clamped down over my throat.

My own body was overcome with the glow we’d first discovered when we’d mated and that I had not let shine through except in these private moments since coming to the Day Court. But I let it out at full strength now, bursts of light pulsing from me with every deep stroke Rhys made inside me. There was nothing but us--night and light and eternity and promises and a deep, unbreakable bond.

All my magic poured out of me then. Fire sparked at the ends of my hair and water lapped my calves; ice pulsed out in glistening crystals along with my light, cooling the humid air around us; my own fingers curled in talons over Rhys’s shoulder; the cuts I made in him healed instantly, as though they’d never been made.

And at last, my own unfathomable night swept from my pores, mingling with my mate’s until it was one and the same.

There was a crack as the structure behind us weakened at the force of our lovemaking. We didn’t care. Rhys only pounded in again, and I cried out his name as, on the final stroke, he reached between us and stroked me expertly where I liked it best, causing me to fracture around him and go over the end of the world.

He came right behind me, filling me with himself, and I collapsed against his body, not wanting to move apart from him just yet. As I fell forward, the magic we’d both unleashed was pulled back into us, and we were in the dusty, forgotten archive once more.

Rhys’s arms formed a band around me and he panted into the crook between my shoulder and neck. He slowly lowered me back against the vault, not to pin me, but to support both of us. He slid out of me and my feet were on the ground again, and he pressed his forehead against mine. “So much for being quiet,” he said breathlessly, a devilish grin on his face.

I adjusted my face so that I could press a long, deep kiss to his mouth. “You can’t tame the night,” I murmured.

Rhys laughed against my lips. “No, indeed you can’t.” His eyes flicked past my face and his brow furrowed in confusion. “Was that . . . was that there before?” he asked.

I twisted to look and saw that the adjacent wall of the vault featured a door--which was now unlocked. “No . . . no, I don’t think it was.” I slipped out from between him and the wall, though he immediately slipped a hand on my hips to maintain contact between us--as though he couldn’t bear to let me go yet. “I thought Aracely said no one knew how to open it,” I mused.

I read the thoughts in Rhys’s eyes and read the twist of his mouth before he even said, “Well, I’m sure _our_ way was not one that would have come to mind for anyone.”

“Fucking it open?” I asked baldly, and he let out a ringing laugh.

Rhys took my hand and turned it over to press a kiss to my inner wrist. “Shall we explore the fruits of our . . . labor?” he asked, eyes flashing. He snapped his fingers and we were immediately clothed, though I instantly wished I was naked again.

I wrapped my fingers around the hand that still held mine and squeezed. “If you still have the stamina,” I said, smirking.

He bit his lip and surveyed me. “If we’re lucky there will be some more doors that need opening down there.”

I tugged his hand and drew him closer both to me and the open door that led deep into the heart of the library. “Why don’t we go and find out?”


End file.
